The Singularity and Presidential Politics
The 2012 presidential election campaign has started. Should the coming technological Singularity be a part of it? Why or why not?
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Total Comments: (21)
Date Started: April 5, 2011 - 12:37 pm
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Comments
“Where do you stand on the subject of cognitive enhancement?”
I submitted the above as a question that presidential candidates would have to answer?
Click below to comment or vote on the question -
https://secure.americanselect.org/debates/q/31321
Who would have thought there would be a Ray Kurzweil presidential draft movement?
Check here to see his latest draft status -
http://www.americanselect.org/profile-candidate/372711/draft-status
More About ‘Americans Elect’ from Thomas Friedman -
http://www.bloggingthesingularity.com/2011/08/27/more-about-americans-elect-from-thomas-friedman/
‘Americans Elect’ Group Challenges U.S. Presidential Primary Process!
Click on the link below for more information -
http://www.bloggingthesingularity.com/2011/08/26/americans-elect-group-challenges-u-s-presidential-primary-process/
HUNTSMAN: ‘Huge Problem’ When GOP Becomes ‘Anti-Science’
Click on the link below to read this ABC News report -
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jon-huntsman-swinging-gop-rivals/story?id=14349989
Here are my views on this issue:
http://singularity-utopia.blogspot.com/2011/05/political-letter-writing-reply-from.html
I urge people to write letters to their politicians asking them to support the Singularity.
“Tech’s Star CEOs Could Be Drag on Obama” -
Click on the following link to read this San Francisco Chronicle article -
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/27/MNNE1K1STG.DTL
The Enlightenment is Near
enlightenmenthub.towncrier.oyez
The Papal Conclave of 1621 has started. Should the coming age of reason be a part of it? Why or why not?
I don’t believe that any politician is concerned with the Singularity. The state of the nation is (ideally) the main concern of politicians, and even something like the Singularity will not attract much attention from politicians. Instead of looking for the most technologically enthusiastic politician, we should look for the politician that will create a political atmosphere that welcomes technological improvement.That means low government. As much as i would like to see the government push for technological innovation, it’s just not going to happen. Look at Bush’s President’s Council on Bioethics, whose members were radically bioconservative to say the least. Obama’s new bioethics commission doesn’t look much better either. The majority of American’s are opposed to a lot of new technologies such as genetic enhancement due to misinformation and stereotypes, and politicians will take advantage of this. Government will only be a problem in the end, and they should only be involved in testing to ensure safety. For this reason, i believe those who look forward to the Singularity should vote for small government politicians, which means voting against both the Republicans and Democrats. Ron Paul looks like a promising candidate, and even if you disagree with some of his politics, four years of low government will do wonders for technological innovation.
@TheAmazingEmptyHead,
Compared to Bush and Obama, what type of folks would Ron Paul appoint to his bioethics council or commission?
I admit I’m making assumptions here, but Ron Paul’s main concern is what he calls “personal liberty”. He believes, for the most part, that the federal government has no business prohibiting goods and services. For example, if the people of an individual state want to legalize heroin, than they have a right to do so in Paul’s view. I imagine that Ron Paul would limit the federal government’s ability to ban medical and enhancement technologies, as well as research techniques that some people (particularly the religious) seem to have a problem with. I believe he would limit the power to prohibit these new technologies to the individual states, which would give researchers a lot more options. I doubt very much he would even have a Bioethics Committee. I believe that Paul’s low government approach would be most beneficial for the emergence of new technologies, or at least compared to the mainstream politicians.
grey goo much?
You have to also consider the perils of tech. Yeah, there would be some benefits to less government regulation, but there are also potentially catastrophic downsides.
Granted, there should be government regulation of these technologies; no one is abolishing the FDA or any other similar organizations. What should be abolished is the government’s ability to ban safe research for philosophical reasons. If someone is making self replicating nano-bots, that might be a problem that needs to be looked after, but if genetic enhancement, for example, is banned because it threatens the “human identity”, than we have a problem.
At least Obama’s Chief Information Officer is on board with the Singularity -
http://www.bloggingthesingularity.com/2011/05/08/obama’s-chief-information-officer-on-the-singularity/
Any others?
For more information on this subject, click on this link -
http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/singularity-positive-political-pressure-letter-writing-campaign
I just think politicians have bigger fish to fry. I mean, most of the American public has no idea what the Singularity is. You can’t build a very effective campaign with your citizens if you are focused on things they don’t even know about. As with most major issues, the government is the last one to the party. It is up to us individual citizens to spread awareness and build grass roots support for the singularity and other important issues. Only then will government listen and act, but perhaps to little and too late
@goofylane, guess I’m just old fashioned. I thought at least some of our politicians were considered leaders and that leaders were supposed to lead.
Perhaps Singularity Utopia’s suggestion of writing letters to politicians would help to avoid the too little and too late scenario.
Considering the Singularity will be the most important occurrence in the history of the human race, it’s truly shocking that politicians are not already publicly mentioning the Singularity.
I recently created a letter writing campaign to raise awareness within political echelons. I’ve created a template letter, which can people send to politicians. Please feel free to use my template or write your own Singularity-letter/s to politicians.
http://singularity-utopia.blogspot.com/2011/03/singularity-political-letter-template.html
Your template is garbage. Sorry to be abrasive, but while I am thoroughly convinced by Ray Kurzweil’s arguments, even Kurzweil himself isn’t as optimistic as you are.
Kurzweil testifies regularly before the Pentagon and is on the Army Science Advisory Board, precisely because the fact of the eventual technological singularity presents equally as much danger as it does hope. He’s currently working with the Army to develop countermeasures to the calamitous problems that would come with the singularity. As Kurzweil said: “It’s a double-edged sword. As technology increases, so does our creative power, but you also see increases in destructive power; and that’s something that we need to prepare for.”
You paint a utopian picture, and even use the word “utopia”, which is frankly just embarrassing. That’s my problem: I’m embarrassed that this highly controversial understanding of the development of technology is being represented to members of congress by idiots like you, with no understanding of why we’re even bothering to worry about the singularity. If it were nothing more than en inevitable utopia state, why would it be important to worry about it now? Why would it be disturbing that nobody is talking about it in the political arena?
It wouldn’t be. Just wait for it to happen. The reason it’s disturbing is that if we want such a utopia to exist, or at least something close, we have to prepare for these changes and all of the problems that they will bring.
Get rid of that letter. Or at least change the tone and eliminate the big, stupid banner at the top of the page. Jesus.
Exactly. Think of it like this. In the next 10-30 years. Four major events will happen. Peak Oil, major effect of Climate Change, an economic power shift from West to East half a century in the making, and at the same time the Technological Singularity. So the real question is can we adapt to so much change so fast.
The 2012 presidential election campaign has started. Should the coming technological Singularity be a part of it? Why or why not?
Please tell us/me your answer to the original question. Thanks.